May I: Escape Route

It couldn’t have been wise to leave the hospital a second time, but she had. The clothes in the bag had been what she had been wearing the night before. Her arm was beginning to hurt slightly, and she didn’t feel like slipping back into any of the clothes she had in the bag. Luckily for her, there had been a pair of maroon scrubs; sitting on one of the shelves in the room she had snuck into.

Quickly putting them on, she searched in the bag for some shoes and when she found nothing, she realized that she must have taken her shoes off before lying down last night. Then Cal must have brought her into the ER without any shoes on.

Searching around, she finally had found an old pair of shoes and stuck them on. They were slightly small for her feet, but they would do at least until she could get home. As she walked out of the room and out what she recognized as the employee door, she was led to the back of the building.  A few people in maroon colored scrubs were leaning against the wall, chatting.

She nodded towards them, and found that it took a few minutes to catch her breath. For now she was more than exhausted from days without sleep. It had just barely sunk in that she had started to feel a lot better with the fluids and antibiotics coursing through her veins—but the more she sat there in that hospital bed, watching the clock slowly spinning down the time she was there—the more stir crazy she felt.

The more that it felt like a nightmare, the more panicked she felt. She would give anything to be back in her office, working on a case with Cal, Ria and Loker, but she knew that was a long time coming. Cal would never allow her back in the office after what she just pulled.

Even though the last few days had been slightly foggy, she could tell that he was getting agitated with the situation. He had screwed the line between them—literally. That she wasn’t allowing him to help her. There was just so much that she couldn’t tell him and there he was: pressing every one of her buttons in worry.

She sighed. If he hadn’t found out that she was gone yet, he would soon enough. Samantha would be coming back to check up on her, which meant that she had to get out of here. The only thing that she had forgotten was to call a cab.

With no phone, no car—her only choice was to go down the street to an old looking restaurant that she had never been in and asked to use a phone. From there, she sat down at an empty table; glad that her bruises were covered by the scrubs, and her scrapes and bruises on her head were already starting to heal. 

When the lady behind the bar asked her if it had been a long day, Gillian acted like she was one of the nurses at the hospital, looking for a nice meal—instead of being one of the patients who had just escaped. “It has.” Her voice sounded raw, clearly filled with exhaustion.

“Can I get you anything while you’re waiting?”

“No, thanks.” Gillian offered her gratitude softly, and turned to face the door.  She could tell that the woman was watching her closely, but then went on to washing the counter disappeared into the back.

Letting the chatter of the restaurant drone in the background, she let her thoughts wander. She thought of Cal, knowing that he had the best of intentions and she didn’t know whether to be happy or annoyed that he had crossed the line.

 He had been there when she had been attacked. In fact, if she and Agent Reynolds hadn’t showed up when they had, she would have been dragged all the way down the street and had who-knows-what done to her.

She was faintly aware that a shudder went through her body at that thought. Looking at the clock, it was a quarter to eight now. Knowing him, Cal was just leaving home. He hadn’t been at work for the last day—she knew that he probably didn’t want to be there, but he had to go in since they were still actively working on a case.

He would probably be making a stop at the hospital and would find out that she was gone. The sooner that she actually got as far away from the hospital as she could, the better. So when the taxi cab had finally pulled up with a honk, Gillian felt relieved and had to slow her quite unstable steps as she walked over to the cab.

The driver had brown hair; a long nose and a slight accent. “Where am I taking you today?” Giving the address and directions to wait for her when they got there, was when she let her head lean against the cold glass. It was only when they came to a stop— that she realized that she had allowed her guard down and had finally fallen asleep.

“I’ll only be a few minutes.” The driver turned around and nodded, then turned up the music in the taxi. Since she didn’t have her keys with her, she went towards the driveway and put in the code. The garage door lifted and she went in and closed it up.

It was a safe neighborhood, but she went and checked the front door—which was already locked—then quickly located her purse; slinging it over her good shoulder, she went into her room; throwing both bags onto the bed, she changed into a red shirt and jeans—instead of her regular work attire.

Heading into the bathroom next, she brushed through her hair; being careful of her arm as she drew her hair up into a ponytail. Turning off the light she grabbed her purse and went back out the front door and got back into the taxi.

“Where to now?”

Giving him the address once again—this time to the Lightman Group—she felt a little more alert, although still felt clearly exhausted.  Sure that she was going on a second wind now, she just hoped that it lasted long enough for her to get where she needed to go, Gillian grabbed the keys out of her purse—as well as her phone and enough money to cover the cab fare and had him park close to her car in the parking lot. Ria and Loker’s cars were already there, but Cal’s wasn’t. She handed the money to the driver and he told her to have a nice day and went off.

Unlocking the door to her car, she threw her purse into the driver’s seat and started the engine. She checked her phone to find that she had two missed messages from Ria, Five already from Cal; two of which he left messages, then threw her phone next to her purse.

Grasping the steering wheel, she blew out. Cal could be here any minute—or Ria or Loker could come out the building. She had no idea what Cal had told them about the situation, but she could only guess that it wasn’t much. Having her car gone from the parking lot suddenly would spark a lot of questions already, but she didn’t want to be there when that happened.

Starting the engine, she knew just where she needed to go. Virginia was about two hours away. A friend that she had gotten back in contact with had moved down there about a couple months ago. Her name was Dr. Anna Keller back then. The last Gillian had heard, she had gotten married, had a daughter, and had moved down to Florida—just three years after Gillian had started working for the Pentagon.

It was out of blue that Anna had called her again, this time to let her know that she had moved back to Richmond—just outside of D.C, nonetheless. Also being a psychologist, Anna’s husband had been relocated back here and Anna had started her own business with a few other people and seemed to be happy and healthy. Gillian had promised to call her if she ever made it down that way, and they would catch up.

Picking up her phone and putting in her lap, she thought what better time than now to go down there. Digging in her purse; she took out the paper that she had written down Anna’s number and address down, put in the coordinates and took her car out of park.